Slacker87XJ said:
Luxeon does have a 5W line out now, pretty cool stuff. I went to Phillips' Luxeon site and checked out the specs on the various high power LEDs, and the Luxeon III will put out around 65 lumens at 700mA current (a little over a watt). If Surefire makes a 3 or 5W LED light, that would be pretty sweet.
Incidentally, The math doesn't quite work out for the two lights I mentioned, since a AAA battery has around 1100 mAh storage capacity, so if either the Petzl or Dorcy are putting out the rated light output, the batteries should not last more than 1.5hrs. I think they both must be regulated to a lower wattage (both are still blinding bright, though).
Any idea why the Surefire lights are so much $$$? They look like they're really well made, but $200?? The LED devices are only $3-5 of that. I assume they're not imported, but still ...
Because Dr. John Matthews (founder and owner) doesn't believe in cutting corners or "making price points." In his own words, "Build the best."
SureFire lights are the one handheld lamp I've ever had that I've not been able to break. I've got a G2 that usually lives in my pocket - but it's been run over by my trucks, it's had hammers dropped on it, it's been dropped in pools, it's been kicked around, ... - but it hasn't broken, and that's a
polymer body, folks!
They have avaialble a MIL-spec hard anodise that can - literally! - saw through a Maglite, and both are aluminum.
They design their lights to not only function as lights, but so you can use them to put a major hurt on someone if you need to - without having to use something huge.
They overdrive their filaments and bulbs to the point where having a light shined in your face with dark-adapted vision can be thoroughly disorienting - and (for some of the much brighter lights) cause physical pain.
As I understand it,
nothing is made overseas for them - all the manufacturing happens in Southern California (which is, I'm sure, a contributing factor to price...) but even their batteries are made by them, to their specifications, specifically for their lights. Yes, they do last longer than the $8 each Duracell and Energizer cells - I've checked (by about 15%.) They make the lamp bodies, they make the bulbs, they make the switches, they make the batteries - they don't make the Luxeon LEDs, but they are terribly selective about them.
All up, this is one true case of, "You get what you pay for." Ranking of handheld lamps:
SureFire
Streamlight
Dorcy (for their metal-body LED lamps.)
Coast Cutlery (but they sometimes use VERY odd batteries!)
Mag Instrument (the old standard)
Brinkmann
Garrity
Everyone else.
Don't even start with me about those two-dollar hardware store torches - if you get one that works well, it's a fluke.
I've long believed in spending a little extra money to get quality tools - and (so far) that has been a good idea.
A 3D Maglite makes a good club, but the odds are better than even you'll kill the bulb using it as such. Doesn't happen with SureFire or Streamlight. If the bulb doesn't work, it's because it's simply burned out.
I may not be able to adjust the beam on the SureFire and Streamlight torches I have, but I've not found a need to.
